Maly Zabojka
Maly Zabojka Gun On The Run ' ' Origin ' ' Maly Zabokca (Goblin for ‘Little Killer’) is, likely, the most wanted goblin alive in Etera, at least in certain circles. Maly resided in Beacon prior to its annexation by the Verk Empire, a former slave ‘liberated’ by pirates after the ship transporting him was raided. In truth, Maly was not in a much better position after joining the pirate crew. Being a goblin child, he was not very useful in many of the tasks onboard. He was too small and weak to operate cannons or board ships, and too rambunctious to be a proper bilge rat. The pirates who took him in were on the verge of dumping his carcass off the side of the ship when the day came that he sighted a rich merchant ship. The vessel had somehow evaded the gaze of the ship’s lookouts, and was almost too far to catch when the perceptive bugger called it out for the crew. The pirate ship managed to catch up to the merchants just before they entered safe waters, and had a very profitable haul. ' ' From that day forward, Maly was assigned as the ship lookout, spotting prospective victims from distances that most would have dismissed them as specks on the horizon. He also quickly proved to be a capable climber, scampering across the rigging as if it were solid ground. When one of their hauls included a strange device their prisoners called a ‘firearm’, Maly quickly got his little hands on it, and proved to be a veritable prodigy with it. While most of the crew dismissed it and the scant few guns they captured afterward as entertainment or the tools of wizards, Maly quickly grew to gain an intimate knowledge of them. Studying their inner workings and the nature of blackpowder and its uses, Maly became the sole member of the crew who could have arguably been called a rifleman. He later earned his keep on the ship sniping enemy crews from the safety of his ship, targeting officers and brutish fighters to quickly quash resistance. ' ' When his fellow crewmembers settled down with other pirate bands to form the town of Beacon, Maly was well into his adolescent years, and still itching for adventure, and a chance to perfect his marksmanship. He mostly limited himself to hunting bandits or dangerous beasts that harassed the town, but when the Verk Empire came to conquer the land in their expansionist rush, Maly was one of the few to be excited. With the coming of the Empire, Maly saw an opportunity to make something more for himself, hunting down dissidents and undesirables. Maly offered his services to the Empire, and was at first dismissed as a regular conscript, and sent on a suicide mission to rid them of his persistent badgering. When Maly returned from the assignment, with a bag of rebel heads, a few Imperial heads were turned. Some of the more sinister elements of the Empire greedily accepted the service of the goblin marksman, using him as a tool for assassination. Upon his request, Maly was gifted a double hackbut rifle, an enormous firearm he dubbed ‘Grzmot’ (the Goblin term for thunder) and was sent on numerous missions. ' ' After years of killing potential dissident leaders and rivals for Imperial officials, Maly requested retirement. He was getting a bit long in the tooth, in the limited goblin lifespan, and wanted to spend his last years not in the service of others, but living his own life. The Empire seemed to agree, on one condition. He would be sent on one last assignment: to neutralize an outpost of Erastil’s Deadeyes, a formidable rebel group that separated itself from other fledgling rebellions in the past with their string of successes against the Verk Empire. Maly grew suspicious upon hearing of this assignment. The outpost was heavily defended, and previous attempts to capture it were foiled by the ambush and guerrilla tactics of the Deadeyes. Maly knew this was another suicide mission, to bookend his Imperial career with assignments he would likely not survive. The problem was, this was no rabble of former pirates, and Maly was no longer a young goblin with a spring in his step. No doubt, he would not walk away from this one. ' ' Right before Maly Zabojca was supposed to go out to launch his suicidal attack on the Deadeye outpost, he took the chance to kill his handler and escape the gilded cage the Empire had confined him in as a ‘reward’ for his service. After weeks of roaming the countryside, robbing travelers to keep his belly full, Maly heard of the fortress city of Greyhollow. Surely, he thought, if he could find a living here, he could escape his past. He wrestled with the thought of simply keep his head down, and disappearing in the crowds. Nobody would notice a stray goblin, even one armed with an enormous gun, in the cosmopolitan population of Greyhollow. But Maly knew that he could not afford the chance. If he were to truly be safe, he would have to make sure the Empire would never find him; and what better way to avoid Verk’s eyes, than to slit his throat? ' ' Appearance ' ' Maly stands at a somewhat taller than average height for a goblin, but three feet is anything but average for other species. Even at a glance, it is easy to tell Maly is not the brawniest of creatures, even for a goblin. At first look, even his perception and dexterity do not seem impressive. He wears a special pair of goggles to assist in targeting, with a dark lens on one side, and his eyeball protruding from the other, which twitches and drifts every so often. His movements also appear clumsy, not helped with the massive hackbut gun sticking out into the air. These are both acts however, to provide a false impression as the bumbling ditz outsiders typically see his species as. Those that have seen him in combat attest differently, when his eye’s gaze latches onto his target and his movements become precise and swift. Over his armor, Maly tends to wear a brown hooded cloak, with tight leather garments and bandages wrapped around his arms. ' ' Personality ' ' Maly bears a very mercenary attitude with a greed that is tempered by a sense of caution and suspicion borne from age. For a goblin, Maly is also quite old. Most of his species have a lifespan of 50 years, and at 30 years of age, Maly has reached just over middle age; compared to humans, Maly would be at least 45-50 years old. However, a life of adventure has made sure he does not show his age, at least in body. In mind and spirit however, Maly bears many mannerisms common to sprightly elders of any species. With a wry sense of humor, patience for stupidity, and amusement with naivety, and a wisdom uncommon among goblins, Maly tends to be enjoyable to be around. When it comes to morals however, is where some might say he has a few shortcomings. His years as a hitman for the Verk Empire give him no regrets, and he hides his service only in a sense of self-preservation. Maly was more or less raised by pirates, and to him the Empire is nothing more than a very successful criminal gang. At the time, the only thing Maly really sees as an ally is his hackbut gun, Grzmot, and he is very protective of his ‘lady friend.’ As he serves with the heroes of Greyhollow however, he may come to grow a sense of principles in his twilight years.